Just a few quick suggestions, and keep in mind its been a long day ;)
In your template, you could change this:
<TD height="30" COLSPAN=2 background="index_11.gif"> </TD>
To
<TD COLSPAN=2 ><img src="index_11.gif" height="30" border="0" alt="Newsflash"></TD>
which in effect, would change the header image for your newsbox from a background of that cell, to an object within the cell eliminating the auto repeating.
This would likely cause an unwanted space under the image whenver the adjoining cells are spread vertically though.
You could change both the header cell and the BOX1 cell and rows from:
<TR>
<TD height="30" COLSPAN=2 background="index_11.gif"> </TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD height="138" COLSPAN=2 valign="top" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" style="border-style: double; border-width: 3px; padding: 0"> #BOX1# </TD>
</TR>
to:
<TR>
<TD height="138" COLSPAN=2 valign="top" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" style="border-style: double; border-width: 3px; padding: 0"><img src="index_11.gif" alt="Newsflash" title="Newsflash">< /br>
#BOX1# </TD>
</TR>
which would in effect merge those two rows, take the background header and bring it to the front, add a page break, then display the BOX1 information underneath the header graphic. If you do that, keep in mind you will need to adjust the number of rows that some of the other cells "span" to accomodate one of the lost rows.
You could try injecting some CSS into the cell containing your header tag such as:
<TD style="background-repeat: no-repeat;" height="30" COLSPAN=2 background="index_11.gif"> </TD>
Hope one of these options helps or sends you in the right direction!